OkCupid is Free Online Dating.

It is torture. Every time I hear that song I feel like engaging in projectile vomiting. It is disgusting. It is vile. It is so banal that Changelings are dropping dead left, right, and center. If I never have to hear that song again, it will be too soon. I want to take a grapefruit spoon to my brain and physically excise the memory engram that contains that song. Everybody involved in its inception, production, and distribution should be locked into a room and be forced to listen to its inanity forever more.

Dear members of The Killers, a pox on your houses for "Human", the worst song that has been inflicted upon me this year. What a way to ruin someone's day.

A couple of days ago, a guy called jjghost wrote a journal entry on the subject of his annoyance with women who checked "casual sex" as an interest on a site such as this, and then still wanted to be romanced in some way. Yeah, I mean, go to all *that* trouble? When you could just meet up and fuck, right?

Well boys, here's the thing. And it's not necessarily a woman thing, but it sure is my thing: casual sex does not mean you get a free prostitute. What it does mean is that I actually want something out of it, too. If I wanted to deal with it in a business-like fashion, I'd take money for it. Also, it bears saying that my sexuality isn't as... linear as the average male's appears to be, which makes arousal a process that has to involve my brain. So, yes, you'd better be prepared to at least have a conversation beforehand. And if I don't like your conversation, odds are I won't be copulating with you any time soon.

Oh, I just checked, and it seems jjghost has removed the journal entry and rewritten his profile summary. I wonder why that is.

When in social situations with a significant other, would you feel it is necessary to somehow signal to others that you are a couple?

• Yes.
• No.

And we're back to questions I cannot possibly answer.

Here, the problem lies in the verb. I don't believe in "somehow signalling". When introducing them, I will refer to them as my significant other; when asked, I will answer truthfully. Obviously, a person who denies their partner is an arsehole. But I've been in the situation where a guy virtually pissed a circle around me, and that's just another kind of bullshit.

Somehow signal? No. Flat-out tell. But I don't have this option here, so the question will remain unanswered.

So I had a visitor to my profile today whose screen name is "bigdick4u". I do not necessarily doubt the veracity of that statement, nor do I question the intentions of the so obviously named. What I cannot help but notice, though, is the rather poor tactical approach. Or are there takers?

This, ladies and gentlemen, was a week that tested the very limits of my endurance. Songs should be sung about it.

On Tuesday evening, I flew to Barcelona - to see Queensrÿche in concert. It was the long-awaited Mindcrime show, three and a half hours of rock opera at its very best. I was able to conveniently place myself in the second row (in Europe, we salute those who are about to rock with due respect: standing up) and I was *this close* to the stage. It was... rapture.

I returned home on Thursday, did an early shift on Friday (6 AM, it's murder), and then boarded a train that took me to the remote village of Huttwil, which hosts the Rocksound Festival. I went there to see Queensrÿche, live in concert. This time around, I managed to wiggle right into a front-and-centre spot. *This close* to the band. This being a festival, the set was quite different, but no less engaging. I was ecstatic to hear Take Hold of the Flame, the most played song on my iPod. Again, rapture.

I got back home around 3 AM, and I slept all Saturday. The life of the groupie was probably easier at sixteen...

Hee. I can't stop smiling. I've been spending a lot (a loooot) of time on Azeroth lately, and I've just had my ultimate nerd moment. I'm in the place where nerd-doms collide, so to speak.

Azeroth, of course, pertains to World of Warcraft, and I have been scampering about Azuremyst and Bloodmyst Isles in my shiny Draenei Mage form, mainly frying critters and collecting herbs. The latter led me to a renewed visit to the Exodar, the mother ship. In the Hall of Light, I spotted a group of NPCs wandering about, the kind that serve a purely ornamental purpose. I checked them out anyway, and saw that one of the females was called "Emony". Oh, cute. Emony. After all, you have to call them something, and it's a nice name, wouldn't you say? And then I looked at the others.

They were Tobin, Audrid, Torias and Curzon.

Get it? I mean, seriously, how cool is that? Yes, it's *that* cool! Two of my nerd-spheres just aligned themselves.

Hee.

That's it. I have finally changed my ethnicity-tag to "Undeclared". Apart from the fact that I find people who search by ethnicity highly questionable (what kind of limits are you imposing upon yourself and the world?), in my specific case, that kind of search leads to mistaken assumptions.

It's obvious from my pictures that I am not entirely white. I'm the mixed race child of my Swiss Mom, the other part of the equation being my Middle Eastern Dad. However. That's genetics. The reality is that nurture beats nature every time, and I am, for all practical purposes, completely Swiss.

So. If you came here looking for something out of 1001 Nights, I'm not it. Me, I'm straight out of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Which is more appealing?

• Order.
• Randomness.

Aww, it's another one of those impossible questions. Why are there just two answers, anyway? Where are the shades of grey?
My sister, an archbishop of orderliness, would make me choose "randomness" by force, because she considers me chaotic. However, my perfectly ordered books / DVDs / CDs / lipsticks speak of meticulous attention to detail. In the surrounding chaos, I find my stuff in about 20 seconds, if necessary. Total randomness is an impediment to growth, while complete order is naught but sterile.
And yet, I'll have to go with "Order" on this. Mostly, because I just remembered how much of an issue I have with people who can't sort out their thoughts before they open their mouths.

How's your English vocabulary?

• OK: bar, beer, party, & various cuss words.
• High-brow: harlot, pertinent, polyglot, imbibe.
• Copious: pulchritude, corvine, laconic, inveigh.
• Choate: flavid, callipygian, tonitruous, fremitus.

I know, I just know that this is going to be used against me. I use words of the third group occasionally (read: when appropriate), and those of the second rather frequently. English is a wonderfully diverse language, and I don't see why we shouldn't try to follow in the footsteps of the Bard. There are very cool words out there that just scream for a chance to be, er, screamed. Such as "erudite", "vernal", or "nefarious". They want to be employed, so I employ them. After all, why keep calling people idiots, when they could just as well be cretins or imbeciles?

Now, if I say that my ideal match should have a so-called high-brow or copious vocabulary, that does not, repeat, NOT mean that I want them to speak like that all the bloody time. That would be beyond annoying, or, as one might say, discommodious.

For which emotion is self-restraint the most crucial?

• Anger
• Fear
• Lust
• Jealousy

Okcupid think I'm a robot. I have the "less emotional" personality tag. That's not necessarily because I have no emotions, but rather because I display them less fervently. I find control to be of the essence with all emotions.

Anger is much more productive if one is not just swept away by it. As the Klingons say: Revenge is a dish best served cold. Please note that I am very forgiving, but unlikely to forget. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, prepare to die.

A person unable to control fear cannot, by definition, be brave. That would be rather pitiful, wouldn't it?

Unbridled lust is no problem - in the appropriate setting. Bedroom, fine. Secluded corner in bar / restaurant, fine. Somewhere dark in a parked car, still fine. Drunk at 4 AM in the middle of the street, I find it a tad annoying. Do not make me kick you where it would really, really hurt under the circumstances.

Jealousy. That's evil. Uncontrolled jealousy is the crime of the pathologically insecure. There's no future there.